Welcome to my blog where I document my adventures in Paris and beyond. Bon séjour!
All tagged expat life
Happy Halloween my friends! In Paris, Halloween is well-known, but not well-celebrated. Save for a few parties and costumes, it is not the occasion that we Americans are used to.
There is no trick-or-tricking. The multitude of costume parties are few and far between. Costume shops sell scary costumes, almost exclusively. And restaurants and cafes serve lots of potiron (pumpkin) soup.
One thing that does fits into both the Parisian and American ideal of Halloween is...
I like to cook. A lot. I find the repetition of certain tasks relaxing, the smells intoxicating and at the end, I have something to show for my effort. Unfortunately, I haven't always been consistent in the kitchen.
While living in LA, I would only be motivated to cook something delicious when I knew Steve was driving down for the weekend. I'd find something online (Smitten Kitchen is my go-to). I would spend Friday evening prepping for dinner. My roommates would pull up a stool, watch me chop, mix and sauté. We'd chat and drink glass of wine, awaiting Steve's arrival.
Yesterday, I decided to revisit Le Marché des Enfants Rouges. It's an open air market on Rue Bretagne, 3rd arrondisement. Steve and I stopped in a few weeks back for lunch at a Lebanese stall. If you visit, you;ll see there are tons of stalls to explore - a variety of restaurants and the regular stands selling seafood, fromage, produce and more. Now that we live closer...
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This weekend we moved into our new apartment! I am so happy that we finally have a home. And it's lovely: it's cozy, has lots of charm and it's ours. I will post pictures soon.
I bet you're wondering "how did you move across town?" We decided to do it the hard way and...
We've been here for almost two months. And while most days are good, filled with exploring, relaxing and eating, there are other days where I feel so out of my element. Today was one of those days. It started out like any normal Monday. I had plans to meet Steve for lunch...
How we spent a nice fall weekend in Paris.
This weekend, we moved around the city quite a bit, from Rue de Pot de Fer in the Latin Quarter for a few bieres up to Montmartre for fireworks and wine and back to our brand new apartment in the Marais - mostly by bike. Both of us finally signed up for Velib, the bike share program in Paris (only 30€ per year), and it turned out to be...
Nuit Blanche is an all night celebration of art. This year, all the action was on the right bank, rive droite, and showcased installations that started in Hotel de Ville and moved up to north, both nord-ouest and nord-est. The event was on October 3rd.
This year's theme was climate change in anticipation of the...
One of the first things we needed upon arrival was a bank account. A friend who had lived here for a few years gave us a tip "you should open a bank account with an international bank before moving here." Based on her experience, I learned that it would be a bit of a nightmare to...
My first foray into making a confiture (jam) in France.
I've been seeing mirabelles at markets all over for the past couple weeks; I wasn't quite sure what they were. But just two days ago, I happened to stumble upon David Lebovitz's Mirabelle Jam Recipe. Not only does he give a great explanation of what they are - "tiny cherry-tomato-sized fruits that are sweet, with a rich plum flavor and little acidity" - he follows it up with...
As many of you know, we're currently in a temporary apartment for two months. We hope that will be enough time to find a more permanent place that we love. We're in the midst of the search right now, visiting at least 2-3 apartments per week....
Since we just moved to Paris, I have decided to document our experience! In honor of our very first week, I would like to give a quick recap of what I/we have done so far...
